A new version of CubeCart has been released, version 5.0.1. This is a security release that fixes some software bugs that were discovered in CubeCart. All users are encouraged to upgrade.

http://forums.cubecart.com/topic/43925-cubecart-501-released

Steven

A new version of Joomla! has been released. This is a security update. Release notes for this new version are available at:

http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5380-joomla-170-released.html

This release utilizes the one click upgrade method that has been made available in Joomla! since 1.6.0. So if you are using Joomla! 1.6.5, the upgrade should be easy. Upgrade instructions are available at:

http://docs.joomla.org/Upgrade_1.6.5_to_1.7

All users are encouraged to upgrade to this release, and keep your Joomla! script up-to-date. Also, please keep your components up-to-date as well.

Steven

Lately we have seen a few websites being hacked and defaced due to the fact that they are using old and outdated versions of scripts on their website.

For example, a website that uses WordPress for its contents, if that WordPress script is not kept up-to-date then when a security hole is identified in the script, you are not patched and protected against that security hole. This provides a gateway for a hacker or malicious user to gain access to your webhosting account.

This is why it is so very important to keep the scripts you have on your website, and any plugins, addons, extensions, and components up-to-date. Also you will want to make sure that any plugins, addons, extensions, or components that you use are reputable and are safe and secure to be used on your account.

Below is a list of common scripts and the current latest versions of those scripts, as of Wednesday July 13, 2011. Keep in mind, you may be using a script that is not listed here and for that you would need to insure that you are keeping that script up-to-date. The ones listed below are just common scripts that we have found to be installed on our servers. If you are using one of these scripts, you should check and make sure you are using the latest version of that script.

WordPress
Latest Version: 3.2.1
Script Website: http://www.wordpress.org

Joomla!
Latest Version: 1.6.5
Script Website: http://www.joomla.org

phpBB
Latest Version: 3.0.9
Script Website: http://www.phpbb.com

Drupal
Latest Version: 7.4
Script Website: http://www.drupal.org

SMF
Latest Version: 2.0
Script Website: http://www.simplemachines.org

e107
Latest Version: 0.7.26rc1
Script Website: http://www.e107.org

Gallery
Latest Version: 3.0.2
Script Website: http://gallery.menalto.com

Coppermine
Latest Version: 1.5.12
Script Website: http://www.coppermine-gallery.net

osCommerce
Latest Version: osCommerce Online Merchant v2.3.1
Script Website: http://www.oscommerce.com

ZenCart
Latest Version: 1.3.9h
Script Website: http://www.zen-cart.com

CubeCart
Latest Version: 5.0.0.0
Script Website: http://www.cubecart.com

CRE Loaded
Latest Version: 6.4.1
Script Website: http://www.creloaded.com

PHPList
Latest Version: 2.10.14
Script Website: http://www.phplist.com

Typo3
Latest Version: 4.5.3
Script Website: http://www.typo3.org

CMS Made Simple
Latest Version: 1.9.4.2
Script Website: http://www.cmsmadesimple.org

We have an RSS feed for this blog where we post about certain script updates:

Link: http://blog.amssupport.info/?cat=10
RSS: http://blog.amssupport.info/?cat=10&feed=rss2

Steven

A new version of WordPress has been released. This is a security update and all WordPress users are encouraged to upgrade.

For the release notes see:

http://wordpress.org/news/2011/06/wordpress-3-1-4

An update is also available in Softaculous.

Steven

We have had a couple of requests come in lately confusing parked domains and addon domains. The aim of this entry is to help clear up this confusion.

• Parked Domains – Sometimes called pointers or pointer domains. With a parked domain, you are essentially making two domain names go to the same website. For example, say you have a webhosting account with the domain name mydomain.com, but you also own the domain name mydomain.net, you may want to have both domain names go to the same website, in case of user error (.com vs. .net). In this example, you would park mydomain.net on top of mydomain.com. This also carries over the same directory structure so going to http://mydomain.net/sales will take you to the same webpage as mydomain.com/sales. Parked domains are a one time $10 charge.

• Addon Domains – These allow you to split your webhosting account up into multiple website. You essentially use the space on your webhosting account to host multiple websites. For example, if you have a webhosting account with the domain name animals.com and you want to add 2 other domain names to your account, cats.com and dogs.com. With an addon domain, you give each domain it’s own DocumentRoot. You might set cats.com to have a DocumentRoot of /home/animals/public_html/cats and you might set dogs.com to have a DocumentRoot of /home/animals/public_html/dogs. This means that when someone goes to http://cats.com they will get the directory structure as it is laid out at /home/animals/public_html/cats and when someone goes to http://dogs.com they will get the directory structure as laid out at /home/animals/public_html/dogs. Addon domains are an extra $1 per month per addon domain.

Addon Domains are similar to having two completely separate webhosting accounts, except the cPanel and FTP for each account is shared. This means that you will want the same individual to maintain both website, because you would not want to give out cPanel details to a stranger and let them have access to all of your other hosted domains.

Scott